situation. No way would she wait a second more than she had to. The same went for him. He had to find his sister.
“Go with her,” Jack told Zaun. “Then come find me. You know where my sister’s house is.”
“I can’t ask you to do that, Zaun. I won’t.” Maria grabbed her weapon and her pack and climbed out of the boat.
“Wait, I’m coming with you,” Zaun said.
She turned around and put a hand to Zaun’s chest. “Jack will need you more than I will. I served. I can handle myself. You two need each other. You made it this far together. Don’t break up a good team.”
“We should stick together,” Zaun said, looking back at Jack, then to Maria.
“We both have families out there we need to get to,” Jack said.
“We don’t know what the hell is out there,” Zaun argued. “The whole world might be like this. We need to stick together.”
Jack didn’t like splitting up. Sticking together was the smart thing to do, but then where did they head first? His sister was an adult. At one time, she had been a strong person. Her husband couldn’t be relied on for shit. If anything, Jack was afraid the guy would put her life in further jeopardy. Make her go for food and whatnot. Thinking about it made his angst to leave even greater.
“We can’t stay here,” he said. “We all have families to get to.”
“Zaun,” Maria said. “Go with Jack. If I didn’t know any better I’d say you two were brothers. I’ll be fine.”
Zaun spun around to look at Jack, and Maria hit him from behind, knocking him out cold.
Jack stared at her in surprise.
“Had to make sure he wouldn’t try anything stupid. Take him with you, and tell him I’m sorry.”
Jack smiled. “I will. Good luck, Maria.”
“You too, Jack.
With that, Maria hurried over to another boat. Jack and started the engine. He checked the fuel gauge, saw that it was full, then untied the craft and headed out.
Idling in the river, he waited for Maria, seeing her emerge a minute later. She waved at him, then headed downstream, Jack watching her go.
The dead had completely circled the area; the second fence apparently not electrified, was bending inward in places and wouldn’t hold for long. Not wanting to waste another second, he hit the throttle and headed up stream towards Cornwall in hopes of finding his sister alive.
